BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 146
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
146 (Cristina Garcia)
As Amended February 25, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+----------------------|
|Education |6-0 |O'Donnell, Kim, | |
| | |McCarty, Santiago, | |
| | |Thurmond, Weber | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+----------------------|
|Appropriations |13-1 |Gomez, Bonta, |Gallagher |
| | |Calderon, Chang, | |
| | |Daly, Eggman, | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to consider
including content on the deportation of citizens and lawful
permanent residents of the United States to Mexico during the
Great Depression in the next revision of the history-social
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science framework and adoption of related materials.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the SBE, in the next revision of the history-social
science framework after January 1, 2016, to consider providing
for the inclusion in that framework, evaluation criteria, and
accompanying instructional materials, instruction on the
deportation to Mexico during the Great Depression of citizens
and lawful permanent residents of the United States.
2)Encourages the California Department of Education (CDE) to
incorporate into publications that provide examples of
curriculum resources, age-appropriate materials that include
this topic.
3)Encourages the incorporation of oral testimony into the teaching
of the deportation of citizens and lawful permanent residents of
the United States to Mexico during the Great Depression.
4)Encourages state and local professional development activities
to provide teachers with content background and resources to
assist them in teaching about the deportation of citizens and
lawful permanent residents of the United States to Mexico during
the Great Depression.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the Instructional Quality Commission (formerly
called the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials
Commission) as an advisory body to the SBE on matters related to
curriculum, instructional materials, and content standards.
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2)Requires the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) to consider
incorporating into the history-social science framework content
on specific historical events, including the Armenian,
Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides and the Great Irish
Famine of 1845 to 1850.
3)Encourages the Department of Education to incorporate into
publications that provide examples of curriculum resources,
age-appropriate materials on the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur,
and Rwandan genocides. Encourages the incorporation of
survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into
the teaching of human rights, the Holocaust, and genocide.
4)Encourages state and local professional development activities
to provide teachers with content background and resources to
assist them in teaching about civil rights, human rights
violations, genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, One-time General Fund costs to the California
Department of Education (CDE) of approximately $160,000 to revise
the History-Social Science Framework to include the Deportation in
the adoption of instructional materials.
COMMENTS:
Origin of this bill. This bill was the winning proposal in a
legislative proposal competition sponsored by the author. It was
submitted by a 5th grade class at Bell Gardens Elementary School
in the Montebello Unified School District.
Draft History-Social Science Framework revision includes
references to this event. The draft revision to the
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History-Social Science Framework released in September 2014
includes some references to the deportation event. In the chapter
of course descriptions for grades Kindergarten through grade five,
the following reference is included in a section on Modern
California: "Students can also learn about other important events
in California's civil rights history, such as ? the forced
repatriation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans to Mexico that took
place during the Great Depression." In the chapter of course
descriptions for grades nine through 12, the following reference
is made in a section on the Great Depression: "The economic
crisis also led to the Mexican Repatriation Program, in which the
Secretary of Labor directed government agents to force nearly
400,000 Mexican migrants (both legal and illegal) out of the
country."
History-social science framework adoption delayed. The
History-Social Science standards currently in use were adopted in
1998, and the most recent framework was published in 2005. The
Curriculum Commission (now the IQC) began work revising the
History-Social Science Framework in January of 2008. A
significant amount of the process had been completed (focus
groups, selection of evaluation criteria committee members, five
drafting meetings) when in 2009 the state's fiscal emergency led
to a statutory suspension (AB 2 X4 (Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes of
2009-10of the Fourth Extraordinary Session) of instructional
materials adoptions and framework revisions until the 2013-14
school year. That suspension was later extended until the 2015-16
school year (SB 70 (Budget and Fiscal Review Committee), Chapter
7, Statutes of 2011).
The IQC began work again on the revision in July 2014, and
released the draft History-Social Science framework for field
review in September 2014. The draft generated extensive public
comment it generated (nearly 700 comments). The IQC also
determined that more subject matter expertise was needed for
certain areas (including some mandated for inclusion by
legislation), and submitted a budget request for $124,000 to hire
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experts through an interagency agreement. These events have
caused significant delays in the production of the revised
framework. Originally scheduled for adoption in May 2015, this
framework is now set to be recommended to the State Board by March
2016, with final publication in Fall 2016.
Analysis Prepared by:
Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN:
0000712